Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Work hard, play hard. That's a saying I've heard more than once in my life -- and have to say that I really feel that I'm living that maxim over here in Hong Kong -- a place that's notoriously workaholic but, also, I reckon, full of people who know how to actively have fun (rather than, say, just lounge around watching TV like I feel too many people in Astro-dominated Malaysia).

In any event, here's reporting that this past week, I got my first pay check from my new employers. (One that, more than incidentally, I'm pleased to report is larger than previously even though I also work fewer days a week and fewer hours a day!) Also, that the following are some of the things I did outside of work over this time period:-

Thursday: Celebrated my birthday by taking my mother to see the very fun Mamma Mia! (the ABBA-inspired movie -- which I had seen by myself the previous week and enjoyed very much!) at the Palace IFC in Central;

Friday: Attended a screening of Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin's involving Head-On (2004) at the Hong Kong Film Archive, then went for dinner with a couple of friends and after dinner, walked along the promenade from Sai Wan Ho to Tai Koo Shing (one of the beauties of Hong Kong is that it's perfectly safe for four women to go for a walk in the park/by the harbour at 11:30pm!);

Saturday: Dim sum lunch with a whole bunch of people in a restaurant inside the APM in Kwun Tong (on another Hong Kong movie fan note: this is the modern complex that can be briefly seen from projectionist Anthony Wong Chau San's window in Mr. Cinema (2007)); then a Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestraconcert at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui in the evening; followed by a late night viewing of my beloved Arsenal lose to Hull City (the one blot on my otherwise wonderful week) on TV in a Causeway Bay pub with fellow Gooners (including my mother!);

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Back in September 2006, I visited Taman Negara -- whose name translates into plain "National Park" from Bahasa Malaysia, as befits its being the first and oldest of Malaysia's national parks -- with a city-slicker friend from the US who hitherto had never been to a single national park in his life. Or, as I was to learn, on a single country or wildeness hike. Ever.

As I was to find out, he was singularly unimpressed with views dominated by greenery -- even if it encompassed those of the oldest tropical forest in the world; and this especially when he had to hike on muddy trails to get up high hills to see them. Put another way: views from the interior of Taman Negara like the ones in this week's Photo Hunt entry represented too little gain for the considerable effort that it took to get to the vantage points from where they could be had.

I, on the other hand, view matters differently. And I hope that you will too after viewing two of my photos of those views; at least one of which was taken from atop one of Taman Negara's lesser peaks, 344 meter high Bukit Terisek. ;b

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Another month, another typhoon. That's what it feels like this summer in Hong Kong -- what with Typhoon Signal No. 8 being hoisted at around 6pm today due to Typhoon Hagupit approaching the territory. In contrast, the summer of 2007 only saw one typhoon come a-visiting. So what gives this year, I wonder?

To judge from comments found on some websites though, it seems like last year was the anomaly rather than this year. Looking for a metaphorical silver lining in the increased typhoon cloud: I got to thinking that typhoons can stir up much anxiety but they also are known for blowing away air pollution and bringing clear air and blue sky days in their wake. So even while I'm holed up in my apartment this evening, I'm nursing the hope maybe going out and enjoying some clean(er than usual) air later in the week, especially come the weekend!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

If the world and its mother didn't know it before this Olympic year came along, it's now conversant of the fact that Beijing has problems with air pollution. And although I wish it were otherwise, so does Hong Kong. This week alone, there was a morning where the air was so bad I actually literally gagged when walking from my apartment to the MTR station on the way to work. But, then, yesterday, the air suddenly cleared and, among other things, allowed the sky to turn beautifully blue -- something that I was moved to capture in a few photos; and that also has inspired me to come up with this photo-essay of (various) blue skies over Hong Kong...

In continuing my efforts to try to show people different sides of Asia's World City, I've selected three photos that I hope you'll agree don't present the usual views that one gets of Hong Kong, its roads and all. Individually, they also respectively represent: town (albeit an older, more hilly part that tends to be off the tourist path); country (Who would have thought it? Cows in Hongkers!); and being out and about (since I took it while on a bus heading back into the city proper after a day of further exploring in the New Territories). :)

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

Which makes it so that by my calculation, it's 71 items eaten, 18 items not yet eaten and 11 items that I never want to eat. So... wanna try doing this meme yourself over at your blog (in which case, do please come back and report your results) or in this entry's comments section? :b

Monday, September 15, 2008

One day this past March, I went on a day excursion in Ma On Shan Country Park with two friends and a hiking buddy of theirs that turned into what I have come to think of, and refer to, as "the hike from hell." More specifically, more than once during this adventure off the beaten track, I -- who really was/am by far the least experiened hiker in the group -- actually feared that I might fall off the hill -- nay, mountain! -- that we were on and, at a few other times, got to worrying that I was limited to the following unpalatable options: 1) give up and stay forever up on the mountain; 2) resort to calling mountain rescue to come to my aid; or 3) die trying to make it down a steep slope on a dry, stony, unpaved path!

Another good measure of my high anxiety can be seen by my abandoning any attempts at photography a couple of hours from the hike's finish. (Frankly, looking down from where I found myself was already threatening to be too frightening and I also generally was too busy trying to find things to grip to for dear life!)

Another sign of the coming apocalypse as far as traditionalists are concerned may well be the fact that the more old-style lanterns made of colored see-through paper, constructed in such a way that a lighted candle could burn within, and or shaped like spheres and animals (or, in my childhood, also things like rockets, cars and such), have given way to plastic inflated 'lanterns'... Worse, it seems that this year, Hello Kitty and CJ7 most emphatically rule!

Despite my love of the cute cat and furry alien, I must admit to having mixed feelings about this festive development. The thing is, I did/do love the paper lanterns of my youth. They seemed more, well, Chinese as well as traditional -- one of those links to my ethnic ancestors that I felt comfortable dealing with.

Still, as I have often found since returning to Asia more than five years ago now, certain segments of people in parts of the continent -- including Malaysia and Hong Kong -- really do seem more popular/mass technology enamoured and savvy than the Americans, never mind English and Tanzanians, I also have spend years living among. This is the same continent, after all, which has made a mobile phone and digital camera owner and user out of me... though I still don't own or even know how to operate -- and still don't feel a need to do so -- blackberries, pdas, wii and whole bunch of other techie consumer items just yet! ;b

Last night, I went to see the Tai Hang fire dragon. Last year, I had gone to get my first glimpse of the impressive creature and had a great time. Unfortunately, the camera I had with me then was only able to capture traces of the beastie's light rather than the dragon itself. But now that I've got a new and seriously more technologically marvelous camera... viola, check out the above two shots of the seriously fiery phenomena that I managed to take this time around (albeit with lots of mysterious white spots appearing on them :S)!

This year's visit was made enjoyable due in no small part to my having gone with a German friend -- who has lived in Hong Kong for five years now but had not as yet visited Tai Hang -- and her German colleague who was visiting Hong Kong for the first time. It's not just that I felt like the veteran who could show them the ropes with regards to checking out the Tai Hang fire dragon but, also, that they enthusiastically embraced my -- and many locals' -- practice of chasing after the dragon as it made its way through the streets of Tai Hang (rather than just passively stake a place among the crowd and wait for the dragon to pass by).

Imagine, if you will, the thrills and movement along with sound of drums rhythmically beating the way, the powerful smell of incense along with clouds of smoke emanating from the ancient beastie, and an excitable crowd of happy people running, not just standing, around -- and you'll have imagined the atmospheric scene that was the case last night (and tonight and tomorrow, as the fire dragon dances for two more nights before calling it quits until next year)!

At one point, we misjudged the path of the dragon and rather than running after it, found that it was heading our way. As the German friend excitedly noted a bit later, "until tonight, I had never seen, never mind chased and be chased by, a dragon!" Alternatively put: Much fun was had at Tai Hang last night.

(And this, amazingly, within 24 hectic Hong Kong hours that also involved my attending a jazz gig the night before, viewing Akitsu Springs (Japan, 1962) on Saturday afternoon and then going and watching Arsenal beat Blackburn Rovers 4-0 on TV in a Tai Hang bar with a couple of fellow Gooners. Oh and do more regular stuff like take part in the weekly Photo Hunt once again, etc. too! Small wonder that I'm content to take thing easy today... at least until this evening when I go watch another classic Japanese movie; this time courtesy of the still on-going Summer IFF! ;b)

Saturday, September 13, 2008

While editing an article not so long ago, I was flabbergasted by a throwaway comment made by the writer about his never having seen an animal in Hong Kong besides the racehorses that get raced competitively over here. For aside from the dogs and cats that a surprisingly large number of Hong Kongers -- even small apartment-dwelling ones -- own, I've seen my share of wild critters while out hiking in the Big Lychee's countryside. This being said, some of the more interesting and faster creatures spotted (e.g., scary snakes; some really beautiful butterflies!) admittedly have been too difficult to photograph.

Fortunately, there have been plenty of other wild things about that are not so animate and thus easier to photograph. Oh, and post going through one Nature Diary and book on wild flowers in Hong Kong, I've still not been able to identify that whose photos grace this Photo Hunt entry. So should anyone be able to tell me what they are, I'd be grateful! :)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I have one of those jobs where I have to think, plan and work ahead; so that today, I was working for the most part on something that will only see the light of day on Sunday (September 14). For all this, though, there's no way that those of us who were living in the US on September 11, 2001, can't be aware that today's (a) September 11 and that seven years ago, certain attacks occurred that changed America.

Part of these changes involved a belated awareness that the world contains Muslims. Sadly, along with this awareness came an emphatic mistaken equation that Islam = destruction and ugliness. The thing is: although I'm not Muslim (and not particularly religious -- period!), I do hail from a country with a majority Muslim population.

Consequently, I'm in a position to know full well that not all Muslims are evil and, also, that there is such a thing as Islamic art along with beautiful Islamic architecture -- just one example of which I am devoting much of this photo-essay to showing: i.e., the impressive Ubudiah Mosque in Kuala Kangsar, the royal town of my countrywoman Michelle Yeoh's homestate of Perak, which I visited along with a couple of Muslim friends on my most recent trip back to Malaysia:-

Exterior view of the royal mosque (For those who are wondering,Perak has a sultan as its official head of state)

But as if this weren't already enough to make me a very happy movie buff (or, oh alright, geek!), there's also many a day that I feel like Hong Kong is a giant movie set or lot. And it's not just because there are quite a few places in Hong Kong that I recognize from having seen them appear in a movie or more. Rather, it's that, increasingly, I also spot places I know and previously had been to on the big screen when I go and take in a new movie! Then there are the celebrity spottings. And not just on occasions like film premieres and such either.

So frequently has this been the case that I have to admit to having lost count of the number of these happenings plus no longer being able to recall each and every personality I've seen since moving to the Fragrant Harbour! For all this though, it's true enough that even while my previous job additionally gave me lots of opportunities to meet and interview movie folks, it often seems more of a thrill -- and sometimes downright magical -- for me to spot familiar faces when, and in places where, I didn't expect to.

In any event, the fact of the matter is that, for these and other reasons, there really have been quite a few days since moving to Hong Kong when it doesn't only feel like I'm living in Movie Mecca and/or a giant movie set but, also, that I'm actually living *in* a movie -- period... and, yes, I do consider myself so very fortunate to be doing so. :)

Saturday, September 6, 2008

I don't know whether it's the case for many other Photo Hunters but one of the by-products of Photo Hunting for me involves my checking out English dictionaries more often than usual (to do such as find wider and more potentially creative definitions of a term that's the theme for a Photo Hunt!). Take this week's theme as an example: i.e., upon consulting the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary entry, I found that the word string can be a noun, verb and adjective; and that definitions for string in its noun form include not just "a cord usually used to bind, fasten, or tie" but, also, "a series of things arranged in or as if in a line string of cars>string of names>".

Friday, September 5, 2008

Let me tell ya 'bout... no, not the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees, like the Jewel Akens song goes. Rather, I would like to devote a few lines in this blog towards extolling the wonders of the internet: which not only gave me a good friend in sbk -- who I first got to know online for a time before we finally had face-to-face encounters in Atlantic City (to attend an Anita Mui concert together), New York and Hong Kong over the years! -- but now looks to have given me an answer, via her Pictures, Thoughts and Comments blog entry here, of what it is that I had seen and taken a photo of when I visited the amazing Engyoji temple complex up on Mount Shosha.

Two words: Jizo Bodhisattva. That's what I had taken to calling a 'rock baby' and wondered whether was part of Shinto Japan's plethora of nature spirits known as kami. So, sbk (who also regularly visits and comments on this blog), is this what I think it is? If so... another mystery solved thanks to information found on the internet (and this time with the bonus of coming from a friend)! :)

Complicated sounding, right? The experience though was actually pretty pleasant and not at all difficult -- and, as I think you'll agree post checking out the following photos, the views that we were treated to, especially of the High Island Reservoir, definitely made the hike worthwhile! :)

An indicator of how very dry it was then

With a couple of old (disused) lime kilns -- and also the Sheung Yiu Folk Museum -- along the way,the educational Pak Tam Chung Nature Trailboasts cultural heritage components as well

Not the folk museum but, instead, more examplesof abandoned dwellingsthat I'm no longer surprisedto see while out hiking in the New Territories

A scenic view that we were treated to early on duringthe Sheung Yiu Country Trail portion of our hike

View of a section of the Sheung Yiu Country Trail

What's over on the other side of this massive wall?(Alternatively: what's this wall part of?)

The answer: Why, High Island Reservoir, of course!

Another view of the breathtakingly beautiful reservoir(and go here for two more lovely views)